It is common place for aircraft to include one or more components that are movable with respect to a main aircraft structure. For example, it is common practice for the wing structure on conventional aircraft to include a number of movable components, generally referred to as slats, located along the leading edge of each wing structure, with each slat being movable between a stowed, or retracted, position and an extended, or deployed, position in which the slat is generally rotationally translated and linearly extended forward of the leading edge of the wing structure. One or more mechanical actuators are ordinarily used to cause the desired translation of the movable component between its stowed and deployed positions.
It is also quite common for the movable components to have one or more electrical devices mounted on or within the movable component, such as heating elements for wing de-icing or one or more electrical sensors. These electrical devices require an electrical connection to be maintained between the movable component and the remainder of the aircraft structure when the movable component is in both the stowed and deployed positions. One method of achieving this is to provide the electrical connection between the movable component and the fixed aircraft structure by means of an electrical cable of sufficient length to reach the electrical component when it is the deployed, or extended, position. However, in providing an electrical cable of sufficient length to reach the device when the electrical component is in the deployed position necessarily means that there is an excess of cable when the movable component is in the stowed position. Whilst it is possible to arrange for the electrical cable to be physically restrained in discrete “loops” when the movable component is stowed, accommodating the excess cable in the stowed position is nonetheless problematic. It is both problematic in the sense that sufficient space must be provided within either the movable component or the corresponding fixed aircraft structure to accommodate the loops of cable when the movable component is in the stowed position and is also problematic in the sense that the stowed loops of electrical cable can in some circumstances move about when the aircraft is in motion and contact other systems or structures causing wear and damage to both the other systems or structures and the electrical cables themselves. A further disadvantage of this arrangement is that it is difficult to protect the electrical cable when the movable component is in the deployed or extended position, such that the electrical cable is exposed to the airflow and any contaminants within that airflow, such as grit, water, ice or snow.